Our purpose is to share your stories with the world, preferably personal stories of you or someone you love.

So,
send one in. And, if you aren't ready please encourage Aunt
Sue or Cousin Jesse to send that family biography, sketch--whatever.
We aren't about prizes--we are about keeping those stories alive
long after we are both gone. They will be a treasured bit of
history for our great-great grandchildren to cherish.

I'd
love to share your stories or those of someone you know. Don't
let those manuscripts turn brown and disintegrate in some
forgotten closet.

Our History

The
Preservation Foundation
is a not-for-profit corporation established in 1976. The idea came to
me
when I was a book editor at Abingdon Press, the book publishing arm of
the Methodist Publishing House. As all editors do, I had too many
manuscripts
to read and too little time in which to read them. Most I could decline
after reading the covering letter. Why? Because they weren't aimed at
our
market. Despite all we could do to discourage submission of projects
that
were out of our area of specialty, we got autobiographies, poetry,
novels,
and all manner of interesting, but inappropriate, projects. Once we
even
got a book of bawdy jokes and toasts. I read it all the way through, I
must admit, but it went back all the same.

In
fact, it was often
true that many of the most interesting projects were the ones that had
to be declined. And it wasn't just because we were a religious book
publisher.
Many interesting and worthy projects were simply too limited in market
or too specialized to interest ANY publisher who had to justify
acceptance
on the bottom line. A vast majority of such books were biographical or
autobiographical in nature. They were usually by writers who wanted to
tell their story or the story of someone they admired. Yet, unless the
writer was a storytelling genius, the sales side of the table at
publication
committee meetings would have an unanswerable objection, "Who's gonna
buy
it?" In fact, even if a writer is Shakespeare reborn, it seldom happens
that she hooks up with just the right editor. Sadly, the typical
project
makes its slow rounds, the rejection slips pile up, and the author
grows
more and more discouraged.

The
Preservation Foundation's
purpose is to help our members get their projects into circulation by:

(One)
putting them
up on the World Wide Web so they can be shared with appreciative
readers
immediately, and

(Two)
offering advice
on how to get your project to the right publisher, if we think it has
commercial
sales potential, or

(Three)
helping you
publish it yourself, if we feel the sales potential is limited, or

(Four)
publishing it
for you.

Since
1976 a lot has
happened in my life. I became a stock broker in 1979 and was
too tied up in all that the profession involves to give much time to
publishing. Since my retirement in 2010, however, I've reached a point
where I can afford to give more time
to the Foundation.

In the
old days, when
words were set in lead type, it was a mysterious process to get a
manuscript
through all the steps required for it to become a book. Today it is so
simple that most books could be produced on this computer I'm using.

And we
now
have electronic
publishing. That's what you are reading. In 1998, in our first year on
the Internet, we put over one hundred projects up on this site. Since
then we have posted over 1000 more. Stories by writers from scores of
countries
- Greece, Nigeria, Botswana, China, Nigeria, Australia, Mexico, Peru, Iran, Great
Britian, India, France, Hungary, Turkey and many others. Of course we
get most from the U.S. and Canada.

All these are available
for the enjoyment of readers
worldwide. This web site will continue to grow as new members add their
works. Chapters or even an entire book published one chapter at a time
will give members exposure to readers few best selling authors in the
past
could hope to reach. There is an entire WORLD of readers out there to
see
and appreciate your work. And best of all, it can be in front of them
next
week--not a year from now or never.

Can you
make money
on your project? Maybe, if your E-Book or self-published
traditional book takes off. Some of them do, but usually that is because the
author knows how to promote herself on the web, in print, electronic
media, and in person.

But
most self-published books will not make much money. If you
want to make money, then keep on banging on commercial publisher's
doors. But if you do self-publish we'll be glad to help with
advice or even to do the technical job of putting the project together
for you. Click
here to see our information about publishing E-Books and paperbacks with us.

The
kind of thing
we mean to publish is the project that is produced with
love and a desire to share something important with those who will
appreciate
it. What we want to preserve is the work you have labored to create that describes
the
life experiences you want to pass along. We believe that will be deeply
rewarding, but we don't expect to make much money in the process and
neither
should you.

The
preservation of
these works for future generations is the central aspect of our work. The
logo
of the foundation is a pyramid, and someday the national headquarters
may
be built in that shape--a shape that can stand the battering of time
and
circumstance. We plan to index and archive members' works; so that
scholars,
your decendents, and ordinary people everywhere will still be able to
appreciate
them long after all of us are dust. Storage on compact disk, thumb drive, DVD, or
some
future medium even more durable, is our goal.

The
Preservation Foundation
is in the business of helping members share what they have to say with
those who would enjoy it. We aren't in the business of making money by
flattering writers and making them pay to publish. That would put us in
the "Vanity Press" category. That won't happen. What we hope will
happen
is that gifts from members and other foundations will provide what we
need
to do our work. We are, and have been since 1976, a 501(c)(3)
corporation,
so gifts to us are deductible from U. S. taxes.

Will it
work? As more
and more of you join us to share your works, I believe smart editors
will
start to check out our web page with the idea of finding diamonds in
the
rough. They will also begin to refer good writers with commercially
marginal
projects to us, just as we will refer commercially viable projects to
them.

Creative
people are
capable of turning ideas into reality. The Preservation Foundation is a
good idea. Thanks to you it will someday become a reality more grand
than
any of us can now imagine. It is beginning now. It is growing.